Category Archives: Book review

Mrs. Hemingway — by Naomi Wood Ernest Hemingway maintained that the mark of a good writer was the ability to focus on key details, those unique, perhaps evocative, observations that would stand out and render each scene more memorable. (For … Continue reading →

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My list of all-time favorites by thriller writer John Grisham includes The Pelican Brief, The Firm, and The Rainmaker. All are about lawyers and the law. Last week, I read one of his more recent novels: Camino Island (Dell Books, … Continue reading →

What is it that Rick (played by Humphrey Bogart) says in the movie Casablanca when Ilsa (played by Ingrid Bergman) asks if he remembers Paris? Rick says, “I remember every detail. You wore blue; the Germans wore grey.” Those lines … Continue reading →

After the success of the Nazis in the election of 5 March 1933, swarms of Germans scrambled to jump onto the bandwagon by joining the Nazi Party. Such latecomers were termed ‘March Violets’ by the old-time Nazis. March Violets is … Continue reading →

In her book A Rancher and a Warrior: The life of Dale Robinson in Wyoming and WWII, Jessica Robinson describes the life of her grandfather-in-law, as a cattle rancher in Wyoming and as a soldier during World War II. Photographs, … Continue reading →

The Second World War ended more than seventy years ago and there is no shortage of photographs of jubilant crowds celebrating the liberation of cities such as Brussels or Paris. The German occupation was over. The Nazis had left. Yet … Continue reading →

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There are two intertwining stories within the Second-World-War novel Spitfire Spies by John Hughes (Austin Macauley Publishers, 2016). One story could naively be labeled male, the other, female. The first concerns the men who are sent to England to spy … Continue reading →

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The novel Hotel Boy by John Trythall (Austin Macauley Publishers, 2013) takes the reader through the early years of the Second World War from the viewpoint of ten-or-so-year-old Michael Treloar. In that sense, Hotel Boy can be compared to John … Continue reading →

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The novel Shadows in a Photograph by David McMichael (Austin Macauley Publishers, 2016) describes life from the viewpoint of Peter Waring. The story begins not too long after the Great War ends and focuses at first on Peter’s boyhood exile … Continue reading →

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The novel Never Surrender by J.G. White (Austin Macauley Publishers, 2016) will delight anyone who saw service in Britain’s Royal Marines and will fascinate those who have never entered military life but are curious to experience second-hand the rigours, rituals … Continue reading →